Britain’s worst sick day excuses

Diane King

Excuses, excuses. When it comes to calling in sick to work, employees get creative.

Bosses have been told: “I have blisters from wearing new shoes on Saturday night”, “I’m having a BBQ at the weekend and need time to prepare” and “I lost a darts tournament last night and I am too traumatised to come in”.

These are just a few of the worst excuses for pulling a sickie, according to a study of 1,300 workers across the UK.

Over half (52.5 per cent) of UK employees feel guilty about taking a sick day, with the majority stating that this is because they are leaving their team in the lurch.

That’s according to the latest data from CV-Library, the UK’s leading independent job board, which found that women feel most guilty about sick leave (60.5 per cent).

The survey found that a further 24.1 per cent of professionals felt that taking sick days reflected badly on them, while 13.2 per cent believe it is frowned upon in the workplace.

Despite these concerns, 86.1 per cent said their boss understands when they need to take a sick day.

“In today’s working world it’s clear that professionals are still taking unnecessary sick days, giving a whole host of excuses,” says Lee Biggins of CV-Library. “But many workers are feeling the guilt, recognising that their decisions have a wider impact on their team and workload.”

The top reason for workers calling in ‘sick’ was because they were too tired (43.4 per cent), with this figure rising to 48.4 per cent amongst 18-24 year olds and 65.2 per cent amongst 55-64 year olds.

In addition, 15.1 per cent said they simply couldn’t be bothered.

Unsurprisingly, only one in 10 (9.2 per cent) said it was because they had a hangover.

Finally, the research revealed the worst excuses that people have given for not turning up to work: